HowStuffWorks
Tracy's nerdiness was obvious by fifth grade, when she reveled in writing her first book report (subject: "Jane Eyre") and winning her first science fair (subject: mold growth). As a literature and creative writing student at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, she finally found her people and spent most of her free time watching "Star Trek" and playing D&D -- when she wasn't writing poems or reading feminist fiction. Today, Tracy has a house full of computers, consoles and cats, and the fiction wing of her library spans from Jane Austen to Marion Zimmer Bradley and "American Gods" to "Y: The Last Man."
Tracy joined HowStuffWorks.com in 2005 and spent her first few years as a staff writer taking stuff apart and mining patents, papers and interviews for details on how things work. Now, she's the site director.
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